I saw this happen at Google, too, but in a slightly different (and arguably better... maybe? ... way), where a senior manager (in the cases I saw, a director an

I saw this happen at Google, too, but in a slightly different (and arguably better... maybe? ... way), where a senior manager (in the cases I saw, a director and an MD) promoted people in their org explicitly so they could become managers of people their own level, which is almost a prerequisite for promotion to more senior levels of management (MD, VP). It worked, too. Doesn't matter that none of the people they promoted to director & managing director are still in their roles, and only one is still at Google, those two people got theirs!